Please read #6.....one of those "epiphany" stories that makes you see things differently....
1/ Frank Rich with his assessment of last week's stories.....including the asshole-in-chief......
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: Donald Trump's rise, Bill Cosby's fall, and a founding father's Broadway debut.
Donald Trump's lead in the polls has been called "the classic pattern of a media-driven surge,” which means that his numbers, like those of Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann in 2012, could crater in mid-campaign. But one factor in his success may be his ability to fill the vacuum left by the faded Tea Party, giving voice to the frustrated GOP white underclass. Will the candidates criticizing Trump this week eventually have to integrate part of his message to win over this part of the Republican base?
Whatever else is to be said about Trump, he is a master salesman. And in the GOP presidential marketplace, he has a near-monopoly on the product he is selling now: hard-line, unapologetic, xenophobic opposition to both immigration reform and Mexican immigrants. Immigration is the fault line of the GOP. The party’s establishment — from its corporate backers to The Wall Street Journal editorial page to Jeb Bush (when he’s not hedging) — want immigration reform. They know that no national Republican ticket can win without Hispanic voters. But the base that dominates the primary electorate loathes immigration reform — so much so that even Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, had to retreatfrom his original embrace of it to be a viable presidential contender.
Whatever else is to be said about Trump, he is a master salesman. And in the GOP presidential marketplace, he has a near-monopoly on the product he is selling now: hard-line, unapologetic, xenophobic opposition to both immigration reform and Mexican immigrants. Immigration is the fault line of the GOP. The party’s establishment — from its corporate backers to The Wall Street Journal editorial page to Jeb Bush (when he’s not hedging) — want immigration reform. They know that no national Republican ticket can win without Hispanic voters. But the base that dominates the primary electorate loathes immigration reform — so much so that even Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, had to retreatfrom his original embrace of it to be a viable presidential contender.
2/ When Lewis Black is on form, he's excellent.....here is a four minute riff on America the great, our obsession with health, and milk.....it builds on you....very funny.
3/ If you are a reasonably intelligent person, you must wonder why the Republicans continue to deny climate change in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence.......wonder no more - this story from Grist explains why the poor dupes are caught in a hopeless position......
Why so many Republicans can’t resist climate denial
Despite the large number of major Republican presidential candidates — now 15, following Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s entry into the presidential race last week — they do not represent the full spectrum of their party’s beliefs on climate change. This is the unfortunate byproduct of the particular fusion of social conservatives and big business interests that came together to form the modern GOP. They don’t always have the same priorities, and so when an issue like opposition to climate action binds them together, it’s particularly sticky among Republican politicians.
Pew polls find that between a quarter and half of Republican voters accept the basics of climate science, depending on how you phrase the question. And roughly half of Republicans support the EPA setting limits on carbon emissions from power plants. You might think that one of the establishment candidates would see a political advantage in being the only contender to embrace a more moderate position — one that would also play better in the general election — as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have done on immigration.
But none of the 15 Republican candidates for president supports EPA’s carbon regulations.
4/ This is a four minute clip of Jimmy Kimmel telling the facts of what happened to Cecil, the lion in the Zimbabwe Park that was slaughtered by a sociopathic dentist from Minnesota....he has some choice words for Dr. Asshole, and briefly breaks up......
Kimmel's monologue was at times scathing:
Let's say we accept at face value that he thought it was legal and properly handled and didn't know the lion had a tracking collar and was a local favorite.The big question is: Why are you shooting a lion in the first place? I mean, I'm honestly curious to know why a human being would feel compelled to do that. How is that fun? Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things that are stronger than you? If that's the case, they have a pill for that. It works great. Just stay home and swallow it, and you save yourself a lifetime of being the most hated man in America who never advertised JELL-O Pudding on television.
5/ Jon Stewart's last few weeks, and in this five minute segment he appears to be speechless at the idiocy of Mike Huckabee.....literally speechless - they must have had a bet at the Daily Show he couldn't do this or something....
For some very peculiar reason, Jon Stewart did an entire segment mocking Mike Huckabee for his Iran deal-Holocaust link tonight without saying a word.
No, seriously, all Stewart did was making a series of noises and gestures, without forming any actual English words, as he mocked Huckabee’s comments and the media reaction to them.
At the end of the show, Stewart explained that it’s been a running joke at the show that he could do the whole thing without saying a word, so they figured why the hell not, since Stewart’s out the door next Thursday.
6/ A very important story....this is why you are sick and disgusted with politics, to the point of switching off. It's because you have heard it all before, because none is dealing with the central point in our country - the corruption that pervades everything to do with government. You have no faith any more, and don't believe anyone.....
Read this - it's excellent.....
Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton (Credit: AP/Charlie Neibergall/Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
As people looked away in disillusionment… we know what filled the void… The lobbyists… the special interests who turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills… they think they own this government, but we’re here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It’s time to turn the page.
–Barack Obama, fall of 2008
–Barack Obama, fall of 2008
Politicians are going to destroy this country. They are weak and ineffective. They are controlled by the lobbyists of the special interests. Every one of these lobbyists that give money expects something for it… They could take a politician and have him jump off this ledge.
–Donald Trump, last Wednesday
–Donald Trump, last Wednesday
And here you thought Trump was wrong about everything. Chatting up CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he became the second GOP candidate in two days to pose as a reformer. Last Monday, Jeb Bush impersonated one in a ‘major speech’ at Florida State University. Nor was Bush first in the pool. In his May 27 kickoff, Rick Santorum, the evangelical teen idol of 2012, cited corruption 10 times and abortion just twice. Santorum’s attempted makeover might have raised more eyebrows were he not flat-lining at roughly 1 percent in the polls.
A day after Santorum’s announcement, George Pataki became the first candidate in either party to propose a specific ethics reform. Pataki called for a revolving door bill to stem the flood tide of ex-officials flowing into K Street from every government office. Trouble is, Pataki polls at roughly 0 percent, so when he talks, no one hears him either. With Bush and Trump blowing the bugle, more Republicans will fall in. If they blow loud enough, they may even wake up a few Democrats.
Government corruption is perhaps the central issue of the 2016 campaign because it’s the biggest problem facing our country. It’s the reason other problems never get solved. Corruption, not the chimera we call partisan gridlock, is what makes our government so inefficient and ineffectual and our politics so empty and vicious. It’s why an ever more cynical public has fled the civic life of the nation. It’s also why Democrats lose elections, though you wouldn’t know it to talk to one.
7/ One for the lads - a collection of fails from TwisterNederland....not too violent this time, but plenty of pain.....11 minutes.....
8/ We were recently in Portland, Oregon and this story from the New Yorker has caused some unease in the people there......and after you read it you will understand why, because it analyses the likelihood of a cat 9.0 earthquake hitting the Pacific Northwest. It's due soon, and soon could be tomorrow or 3015.....noone knows for sure.....
A most interesting article that has shaken up the West coast.....it's a long story, but very good indeed and should be read by everyone in Northern California and Oregon.....
When the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku, Japan, Chris Goldfinger was two hundred miles away, in the city of Kashiwa, at an international meeting on seismology. As the shaking started, everyone in the room began to laugh. Earthquakes are common in Japan—that one was the third of the week—and the participants were, after all, at a seismology conference. Then everyone in the room checked the time.
Seismologists know that how long an earthquake lasts is a decent proxy for its magnitude. The 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta, California, which killed sixty-three people and caused six billion dollars’ worth of damage, lasted about fifteen seconds and had a magnitude of 6.9. A thirty-second earthquake generally has a magnitude in the mid-sevens. A minute-long quake is in the high sevens, a two-minute quake has entered the eights, and a three-minute quake is in the high eights. By four minutes, an earthquake has hit magnitude 9.0.
9/ An absolutely lovely four minute National Geographic video of our beautiful world, the animals, fish and birds who share it and scenery you probably haven't seen before. As I watched this for some of the shots you have to wonder how the hell they captured these images....amazing....
Quite lovely.....
10/ Matt Taibbi is convinced Sandra Bland was murdered......a convincing analysis of why "the system" has killed this young woman, and how the media will do a "blame the victim" number on this lady....
There is, however another theory that we heard on a radio show today. Sandra was found with highly elevated levels of marijuana in her system, three times the impairment level in Colorado where it's legal, and remember she said "I'm have epilepsy" in the video of her assault by the cop.
Her epilepsy meds have warnings about suicidal impulses if you stop taking them, and the cops almost certainly confiscated the pills. Also, she went for a job interview a couple of days before the arrest, and was given a drug test, and got the job! So how was her level of marijuana so high after three days in jail? Maybe they gave her a cookie laced with weed, and after three days without her meds she suffered the withdrawal symptoms, which could lead to suicidal impulses.
Just sayin' - this came up on the radio show, and if the cops gave her the weed after denying her her meds that would be murder too.....
Sandra Bland was found dead at the Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas, on July 17. Jay Janner/AP
So news broke yesterday that authorities in Waller County, Texas, have "full faith" that Sandra Bland committed suicide. They said there was "no evidence of a struggle" on the body of the 28-year-old African-American woman who was ludicrously jailed last week after an alleged lane change violation.
In related news, the Texas Department of Safety ruled that Brian Encina, the officer who arrested Bland, pulled her from her car, and threatened her with a Taser, had merely violated the state's "courtesy policy." The state said there was "no evidence" yet of criminal behavior on Encina's part.
So barring something unexpected, we know now how this is going to play out in the media.
Many news outlets are going to engage in an indirect version of the usual blame-the-victim game by emphasizing the autopsy finding of suicide, questioning Bland's mental health history, and by highlighting the reports of marijuana found in her system.
11/ Very interesting story about how complex the world of trade has become, and how any attempts to boycott retailers who have their clothes or goods made in sweatshops has become impossible.....this will be new information for you, and by the way the video they mention in the beginning was on DDD a few months ago...read on....
There’s this video that went viral earlier this year. On Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, a vending machine is selling plain white T-shirts for €2 each. Customers approach in ones and twos, insert coins, pick a size. Then, before the shirt comes out, a photo appears—a black-and-white image of rows of sewing machines. “Meet Manisha,” the screen reads, dissolving to a close-up of a girl in a headscarf who looks about 16. She earns “as little as 13 cents an hour each day for 16 hours.” The Berliners put their hands over their mouths.
“Do you still want to buy this shirt?” the display asks. The menu comes up again. This time, the options are “buy” and “donate.” As the music swells, all the shoppers press “donate.”
For a generation now, buying better has been one of our most potent forms of protest. Who doesn’t want to believe that he can rescue Manisha from misery simply by purchasing the right T-shirt? The same idea underpins hundreds of earnest NGO advocacy campaigns urging people to take action against the Swooshtika, Badidas, Killer Coke. It prompted a much-praised John Oliver exposé in which he blasts H&M for selling “suspiciously cheap” clothes sourced in Bangladesh. The only trouble is, this narrative is bullshit.
It all started in the mid-’90s, when anti-sweatshop mania burst into the mainstream of American culture. Naked people chanted outside the opening of an Old Navy, Jennifer Love Hewitt led an anti-sweatshop protest on "Party of Five," Kathie Lee Gifford cried in front of Congress. Nearly every major apparel brand was, at one point or another, the target of a boycott campaign. Radiohead told its millions of fans to read No Logo, Naomi Klein’s investigative polemic against multinational corporations.
And for a while there, it worked.
12/ Joni Mitchell was a wonderful singer and songwriter , and here she is live in a BBC studio singing "California" some time in the 70's.....listen to the lyrics....she is brilliant at conjuring up images with her music.....
13/ Jon Stewart as a major source of trusted news has been a given for quite a few years now.....and this article gives 10 reasons how important he was.....
Jon Stewart (Credit: Comedy Central/Salon)As we enter the final run of Jon Stewart’s tenure as host of “The Daily Show,” we can expect a pack of top-10 lists to appear. While these lists are certain to offer fans a chance to reminisce over classic Stewart moments, I’m going to offer a different spin. Rather than select 10 key moments from his show, I’m going to offer the 10 reasons why Stewart is the best satirist our nation has known—with examples from the show.
My goal is not just to offer great Stewart memories, but to also prove that Stewart’s comedy was the most socially significant example of political satire in U.S. history.
Calling Stewart the best satirist our nation has ever known is no small thing. Recall, for example, that the American Revolution was known for its satire. In fact, ranging from Ben Franklin to Samuel Clemens our nation has a long and impressive list of political satirists who used irony to encourage the public to question the status quo. The Vietnam era was also full of satire—especially via The Smothers Brothers. But I want to make the case that Stewart’s satire trumps them all and here’s why:
14/ James Hansen is a serious scientist, and he is worried about climate change and the rise in sea levels, but is optimistic about limiting the damage if we act now......
Read this story, and according to Hansen if we [mankind] can act quickly we can save ourselves, but of course there is the little stumbling block of the worlds richest corporations fighting any action to limit their profits every inch of the way.....
I wish I could believe the "good news".....but read the first half of this story and you will realize how serious the situation is.....
James Hansen, the former NASA scientist whose congressional testimony put global warming on the world’s agenda a quarter-century ago, is now warning that humanity could confront “sea level rise of several meters” before the end of the century unless greenhouse gas emissions are slashed much faster than currently contemplated.
This roughly 10 feet of sea level rise—well beyond previous estimates—would render coastal cities such as New York, London, and Shanghai uninhabitable. “Parts of [our coastal cities] would still be sticking above the water,” Hansen says, “but you couldn’t live there.”
Columbia University
This apocalyptic scenario illustrates why the goal of limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius is not the safe “guardrail” most politicians and media coverage imply it is, argue Hansen and 16 colleagues in a blockbuster study they are publishing this week in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. On the contrary, a 2 C future would be “highly dangerous.”
If Hansen is right—and he has been right, sooner, about the big issues in climate science longer than anyone—the implications are vast and profound.
15/ Miami is getting a new soccer stadium, courtesy of David Beckham and it won't cost taxpayers a penny......from Channel 10 News [video].....
The dream of Major League Soccer returning to South Florida moved a step closer to reality Friday morning.
After an early morning meeting involving Mayor Tomas Regalado, the city of Miami and David Beckham's ownership group have agreed to build an MLS stadium.
The proposed stadium will be built on a parcel of land next to Marlins Park in Miami.
"Today's meeting with Mayor Regalado was another positive step toward bringing a world class soccer club to Miami," a Miami Beckham United representative said. "We're still in the early planning stages and several viable options still exist, but our preferred stadium location is the former Orange Bowl site."
Since he was granted ownership rights to an expansion team by the league, Beckham has long desired to return the MLS team to South Florida.
The group originally desired a stadium to be built on a waterfront site in downtown Miami, but after city officials denied those options, Beckham began to look further inland.
The English soccer icon toured Marlins Park itself as a possible site for a new team in 2014.
16/ This is why it won't cost taxpayers a penny - the disgusting story of corruption and criminal bribery that was the Miami Marlins Stadium.....how another billionaire, Miami's own Jeffrey Loria, screwed the taxpayers of Dade County by purchasing the local politicians and the citizens are on the hook for almost $1.5 billion..........
Miami-Dade County staffers are planning to meet this week with representatives for the Miami Marlins to resolve a number of stadium-related expenses that the team has submitted to the county.
If the two sides can come to an agreement, they may be able to avoid going into arbitration to resolve or reduce the more than $4 million in Marlins expenses that the county is questioning.
Suzy Trutie, a county spokeswoman, confirmed the meeting but said she had no other details.
"I have to wait until they meet" before commenting on arbitration, Ms. Trutie said.
The Marlins have submitted pages of line-item expenses to be counted as part of the team’s share of the construction costs of Marlins Park in Miami’s Little Havana. As of last month, the county was contesting or requesting more information on more than 700 items submitted by the Marlins, amounting to more than $4 million.
The county has been planning to take a number of the expenses to an arbitration panel to settle, as outlined in the stadium’s construction administration agreement among the Marlins, the county and the City of Miami.
The retractable-roof stadium, which opened for the Marlins’ 2012 season, has a capacity of 37,000. Together with its parking garages, the complex cost in excess of $640 million to build, including $515 million for the stadium itself.
The stadium-financing deal worked out between Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and county and city officials has been one of the mostly criticized deals of its kind. It was a factor in the recall election of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez in 2011, followed by the exit of County Manager George Burgess, who worked on the deal and resigned in the wake of the recall election.
The Marlins Park project was mostly financed through sales of county and city bonds. When fully paid off over the next three-plus decades, the total cost in tax revenue will come to more than $2 billion, with some calculations running as high as $3 billion — which would make Marlins Park the most expensive stadium ever built.
17/ I watched a few of these but per this story, I missed a masterpiece of television according to the TV critic of the Times......Deadwood.....
There are dramas that are arguably better or more widely appreciated than “Deadwood”: “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” or “Breaking Bad.” But of all the shows I have reviewed over the past 12 years, “Deadwood” is the one I would most like to see again for the first time.
In that first jolt of surprise and enthrallment, it felt as if David Milch had created “Deadwood” just for me — I’ve always loved westerns — twisting the genre to invent something new. I wrote at the time that westerns were like men’s clothes or formal poetry: There is a certain liberty in their constraints, and some limitations inspire creativity. “Deadwood” turned out to be a television sonnet with a hip-hop beat.
Before “Mad Men” or “The Americans” found new ways to reclaim the past, this was a period piece ahead of its time, a modern drama set during the Dakota gold rush of the 1870s. A grim, washed-out palette of sepia and gray replaced the familiar Technicolor panoramas of John Ford westerns.
Todays video - the "Shave and a Bath" scene from High Plains Drifter....
Todays sexes joke
Wife's Diary: Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird.
We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner.
We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner.
I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he
was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no
comment on it.
Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go
somewhere quiet so we could talk.
He agreed, but he didn't say much.
I asked him what was wrong; He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it
I asked him what was wrong; He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it
was my fault that he was upset.
He said he wasn't upset,
that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it.
On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving.
I can't explain his behaviour. I don't know why he didn't say, 'I love you, too.'
When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely,
as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.
He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem
distant and absent.
Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15
minutes later, he came to bed. But I still felt that he was distracted,
and his thoughts were somewhere else.
He fell asleep; I cried. I don't know what to do.
I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with
someone else. My life is a disaster.
Husband's Diary:A two-foot putt.. who the hell misses a two-foot putt!
Todays redneck jokes
Rednecks have the lowest stress rate because they do not understand the seriousness of most medical terminology:
Artery The study of paintings Bacteria Back door to cafeteria Barium What doctors do when patients die Benign What you be, after you be eight Caesarean Section A neighborhood in Rome Cat scan Searching for Kitty Cauterize Made eye contact with her Colic A sheep dog Coma A punctuation mark Dilate To live long Enema Not a friend Fester Quicker than someone else Fibula A small lie Impotent Distinguished, well known Labor Pain Getting hurt at work Medical Staff A Doctor's cane Morbid A higher offer Nitrates Rates of Pay for Working at Night,
Normally more money than DaysNode I knew it Outpatient A person who has fainted Pelvis Second cousin to Elvis Post-Operative A letter carrier Recovery Room Place to do upholstery Rectum Nearly killed him Secretion Hiding something Seizure Roman Emperor Tablet A small table Terminal Illness Getting sick at the airport Tumor One plus one more Urine Opposite of you're out
Todays Japanese sex joke
A Japanese couple is having an argument over ways of performing highly erotic sex:
Husband: “Sukitaki”.
Husband: “Sukitaki”.
Wife replies: “Kowanini!”
Husband says angrily: “Toka a anji rodi roumi yakoo!”
Wife on her knees literally begging: “Mimi nakoundinda tinkouji!”
Husband replies angrily: “Na miaou kina tim kouji!”
Husband says angrily: “Toka a anji rodi roumi yakoo!”
Wife on her knees literally begging: “Mimi nakoundinda tinkouji!”
Husband replies angrily: “Na miaou kina tim kouji!”
I can't believe you just sat and tried to read this -- as if you understand Japanese!
You'll read anything as long as it is about sex. I worry about you sometimes!!!
